Topia, the benevolence game that allows folks to live vicariously through world building, has just received a big update. The game allows players to create and maintain intricate lands and manage livestock in a natural simulation environment.

Per the Google Play app page, Build 12 brings:

Herbivores can outnumber and kill a carnivore.
Poips now eat trees.
Shoals of fish.
Amphibious Broncodiles.
‘3D’ gyro driven view motion where supported.
Day/Night cycle.
bugfixes:
Land creatures are less likely to wander into the sea.
Birds don’t get stuck and interact with the Landscape.
+many small fixes.

Altogether, it sounds as though the game engine has been refined with more logic. The day/night cycle will definitely help with realism.

We had an opportunity to review Topia a short while ago; it’s available on the Play Store for $1.99.

There arenâ€™t much god games out there â€“ not on pc, consoles or phones. So Topia is very much welcome, promising all kinds of cool stuff. But does it deliver on the promise?

Topia was a game I was very excited for. I love god games where Iâ€™m able to create land, water, life and flora. The ability to oversee life itself – and making it grow or die with just one tap on the screen â€“ is an idea that really appealed to me as a gamer. I was thinking of ways to play the same game over and over again. This time without water, that time without threes and another time without land. Or with just docile animals, that really donâ€™t do anything but eating leaves.

At first sight, Topia promised me this kind of gameplay, with many features to experiment with. But, as one might have guessed, it did not live up to my expectations. Expectations I got after reading the description of the game and after firing the game up for the first time. There are supposed to be a thousand creatures to play with, complete with a natural ecosystem and a food chain. Three straight up lies if I think about it. I did not find any of it in the game.

Well, in some there is. There could be a thousand creatures. By choosing one of the six (!) animals and by tapping on screen, holding your finger on it and dragging it across the screen, there will be hundreds maybe thousands of creatures popping up. But those are all the same â€“ the eat the same thing (sometimes each other), walk around aimlessly after eating everything they wanted to eat and then just drown themselves in the water or just die. Die in vain. And just disappear.

The only ecosystem there is, is the one that when there isnâ€™t any water, the threes and animals die. The only food chain there is, is the one where bigger / faster animals eat the smaller / slower ones. There isnâ€™t any other variation on the formula and there isnâ€™t anything to do after I molded the ground like I wanted and putting threes and animals where I wanted. There are no goals and the game is to narrow to create your own goals. Frankly, there isnâ€™t anything to do over here.

So after all that, I got excited over nothing. Really nothing at all. I wanted to have a god simulation game where I could mold flora and fauna the way I saw fit â€“ instead, I got a narrow game experience which I cannot recommened to anyone.